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Topic: EE Clone Trooper 4-Packs (Read 24255 times)

i want to know if the all-white clones w/battle damage are going to have the damage marks all in identical spots or if all four will have differently placed and shaped battle markings? i figure i don't need this 4-pack if they are all the same and i already have a clean all-white version so i don't need that 4-pack either, just the two colored 4-packs. has anybody dug up this info?

i want to know if the all-white clones w/battle damage are going to have the damage marks all in identical spots or if all four will have differently placed and shaped battle markings?

From the looks of the picture at EE:

It looks like the blast marks on the Red and Blue Clones ARE in different spots, the red has a blast mark on his left, the blue more of a scortch mark on his right, but no one really knows until better pictures with all 4 dirty clones surface or people start receiving them...

Who knows on the poster Vator... SA's a better sculpt overall I'd say, but whatever.

More signs that Rebelscum's obviously Hasbro's research & marketing material:

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Reasons for the higher price on these items:

1) EE always has higher prices (their shipping rates are the real killer)2) These are super-articulated (I don't seem to recall many people on rebelscum threads complaining when they bought 20 or more VOTC stormtroopers at $10 a piece)3) Limited quantities

The only reason the super-articulated clone troopers sold for $5 last time was because they were done in a low production as a test market figure.

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I do not thing the price is that bad at all:Figures $20Packaging $5Limited product(exclusive) $5EE premium(always) $5Total: $35

Anytime a toy company produces an exclusive(20,000 units) the per-unit cost is a bit higher than a regular production run(150-300,000 units).

LucasFilm is not ripping us.Hasbro is not ripping us.Entertainment Earth is not ripping us.They are all just giving us a great product(that we ALL have asked for) for a decent price.

I love seeing the "expert" opinions. Apparantly Hasbro released production information to just these two people. Whew, well now it's all explained truthfully to us.

Hasbro recognizes that army builders sell, so they stick them in the overprice VOTC line and in expensive boxes like this.They know people are going to go ape**** for them, so they're making the biggest buck they can.

Just like the figure prices being $7. Last big push they'll ever get, so they're riding for all it's worth.

I still wonder however, WILL they make the best profit possible, or would it be wiser to sell more at a lower price? From what I see, even the die-hardiest of the die-hard army builders are NOT going ape **** on these.

I'd include myself in this, but I don't see the others saying "Yeah I'm gonna buy every set I can!". It seems more that people are going in on a case... I'm trying to get HALF a set on a second case (all BD variants), but at this point that's likely all I'd get, and only because I'm going in on cases locally with collecting pals.

I don't see people saying "Yup, buying up an army of 100 Clones" on this one though. And with that, I truly wonder just what losses they'll incur with a set that, for all intents and purposes, should make army building affordable, and should sell TONS upon TONS of the white sets.

I have no doubt these will sell, but I do doubt if they'll live up to potential profit, and be "successful", especially if they're figuring these will sell as hot and as easily as the CT STormie 4-packs of old. Oh what I'd give for the #'s on these at the end of things.

The telling sign on well these sell, is to see how long down the road EE is still selling them. If in 6 months they still have them for sale, you can say that collectors/army builders weren't ready to drop down some good cash for these in sight of the upcoming ROTS onslaught. If in a year from now they still have these for sale, then you can say that it was definitely a bust, because at the price of the old army builder sets these should sell out within a month.

SilverZ

I don’t like the price, personally, but I do understand it - from what limited knowledge I have, and how things have come to be (or not come to be, when it comes to SW exclusives) for items such as this. A few things for thought:

It has to be considered that EE may be the SOLE worldwide distributor of this set. It makes sense for them as an online retailer, where their competition routinely acquires inventory from Asian sources. By limiting the production run to only the quantity EE orders, they get a true exclusive, but the cost of the run increases per figure by a few factors.

For reference and comparison:

My friend runs a side business of model airplanes – those metal ones of commercial jetliners. They’re made by Dragon, and they’re made in China on the same line that Dragon does any other line they make, and then that line is shared by other companies, too. One day they will be making his 737, the next day, Mystery Machines.

He does his business as a hobby, mainly because he wants to see airline designs none of the major companies were interested in producing. Braniff planes, things like that. He licenses those designs, and manufacturers what he wants, and there’s a small group of collectors that want them as well. The problem is, his runs can be as low as 500, and as high as 5,000. At both ends of the scale, they are small runs for Dragon, and require a production run that only takes days. This has to be scheduled between those 350,000 unit runs on Scooby Doo crap, where they have to switch tools, paints, and packaging materials on the line. The operation of the line is cheap; meaning paying the guys on the line is nothing. The money is in upfront costs, so the more units you crank out for that line switch, the lower your costs will run, assuming someone is on the retail end to buy the stuff. So the total amount of units produced, the timing of the production run, and the complexity of the tools, parts and paint apps (even for existing molds) factor into the cost of the run.

In his case, producing specialty products in the midst of an industry based on mass production makes his product expensive. It all sounds very similar to the circumstances under which an exclusive like the SA Clones exists under.

So think about being an online retailer, out to get an exclusive they can sell online, that won’t be shared with a B&M or available outside the US by someone else. You want a worldwide exclusive. Your order quantities aren’t going to be anywhere near a Walmart, Target, or TRU. And, on top of that, you’re asking for a run of a product with more parts and paint applications at that smaller quantity. You’re going to pay a higher price for the line time, and not make that money back in bulk because you only have an end-user need to fulfill a fractional amount of orders. So, you charge more.

Is Target, Walmart, TRU, or anyone else banging down Hasbro’s doors, asking for a 4-pack of super articulated figures from a movie, now three years old? Or in quantities large enough to send an average of 6 cases to each and every store in their chain? Is there a second worldwide distributor lined up for it? No. So is this a pricey thing to do for whoever takes on the concept? Probably.

So my point is, we’re getting something we actually want, and it’s being done the right way. We get SA clones in multiples, and in new variants. It’s costing more than we want, but what has happened to make it a reality, as delivered, may just require the cost. If we as consumers don’t like the cost of something like this, we can just not buy it. Then other companies that want to offer exclusives will learn to deliver something in a cheaper way, maybe by using 3-pack clone molds or dropping variants. Then we can complain about those being cheaply made and how we’re willing to pay more for better product.

While you do make some valid points, we also have to take into account where the production costs lie, will it be based on the single figure, or the full 4 pack of figures. But I don't know much on that front so I won't assume anything.

What I can say is that it's quite possible this item will not be just an EE-exclusive. There are many previous US exclusives that have wound up not being exclusive elsewhere in the world, a case in point would be the POTF2 Y-Wing and Skiff which from people I spoke to and reports I read on the web were found in abundance in many countries, an example being Austrailia. Even exclusives that Hasbro deems as "this store will be the only place in the world to get this item" have not been the case, a look back at the fiasco that was the Imperial Shuttle will show that Hasbro cannot be taken at their word for what an exclusive really is.

Also one has to wonder, whose idea was this 4pack in the first place? Reading some posts one would think that Entertainment Earth brought the idea to Hasbro, but does EE have the ordering power to be able to do so? What if it was Hasbro who brought the idea to EE after the major retailers passed on it (which if they did, sucks major ass!).

Just some food for thought, in the end I believe Hasbro could have looked at larger sales numbers if the price was cheaper and if it was sold at retail. Of course we're not going to hear about it from Hasbro, which is why my previous suggestion about seeing if EE has this still in stock 6 to 12 months from now is a good gauge of it's success.

Also one has to wonder, whose idea was this 4pack in the first place? Reading some posts one would think that Entertainment Earth brought the idea to Hasbro, but does EE have the ordering power to be able to do so?

I thought that was the case because EE said so right in the item description...

"First time ever - Entertainment Earth worked with fans, GalacticHunter.com, Hasbro and Lucasfilm to design this exclusive item from the ground up. "

Also one has to wonder, whose idea was this 4pack in the first place? Reading some posts one would think that Entertainment Earth brought the idea to Hasbro, but does EE have the ordering power to be able to do so?

I thought that was the case because EE said so right in the item description...

"First time ever - Entertainment Earth worked with fans, GalacticHunter.com, Hasbro and Lucasfilm to design this exclusive item from the ground up. "

Jeff

ya know, i looked on the item description and on the announcement on hasbro for anything like that and didn't see it. well i guess that does show they indeed do have the buying power

While you do make some valid points, we also have to take into account where the production costs lie, will it be based on the single figure, or the full 4 pack of figures. But I don't know much on that front so I won't assume anything.

I personally think the key thing to it all, and the thing nobody's likely to ever know, is what the total production run is on this for EE. They're touting it as "limited", and if it is then there's some legit explanation to the pricing there... I don't think it's ENTIRELY an explanation, but it's a thought, and one we'll never get an answer to.

The other thing that's not really answerable right now, and likely ever, is: Does MORE at a lesser price yield higher profit than LESS at a higher price? A lot of times, volume's the answer. More likely than not I'd say, but not always of course. A lot depends on the product, and that very thought ties into what EE's said they'd commit to buying.

So many people who routinely say they're going to buy MORE of something are now saying "Ya know, one set's all I want", and some are even not getting in on this at all.

When you order a case with local buddies, the price is tolerable, but you're still screwed if you want more whites on this, and that will always suck. It makes getting one set almost your only route unless you truly think $10-ish is a good price to army build at... And the high price itself (IMO) defeats the entire IDEA of building armies.

Maybe Hasbro thinks people will go ape**** and just buy up stuff in droves at $10 per figure these sets, I dunno. I can't justify it... If I was wealthy, I suppose I would probably do it and be damned any thought of making a statement by not buying, but as it stands I was justifying VOTC Stormtroopers which I want probably 10x as much as these Clones.

I really think they're missing the ball on selling more for less, but that's me, and I can't prove that notion. When dealing in something with such low costs in the first place (which this has to be), I can only imagine selling it in the highest total units possible (since that seems, to me, the logical way to go) would make more money. I dunno.

Also one has to wonder, whose idea was this 4pack in the first place? Reading some posts one would think that Entertainment Earth brought the idea to Hasbro, but does EE have the ordering power to be able to do so? What if it was Hasbro who brought the idea to EE after the major retailers passed on it (which if they did, sucks major ass!).

I heard about this set from a good source about 6 weeks ago. Sure enough when I heard that the story was that it was EE that approached Hasbro about doing this. They're definitely ramped themselves up with Star Wars in the past few years. Just look at the Holiday Jawas. That was an EE exclusive as well.

With the change in management in the Star Wars brand within Hasbro, you also had to see something like this coming. The new brand manager came from the GI Joe line, which may be somewhat on the skids, but is actively doing the troop builder thing. Hasbro ultimately wants to make money, and they do surf message boards for ideas. They know which figures are hot and which aren't, and they also know there's a market for army builders. I fully expect them to do things like this if they're serious about maintaining a solid fanbase for the toy line past 2006.

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Well, it's a tricky thing, this 4-pack. Yeah, buying in bulk is the cheapest way to go, and puts them at a very reasonably priced $6.25 each (cheaper than most current figures), but obviously not every collector has $300 to plunk down on 3 complete sets. Nor do some collectors want to deal with splitting cases up, and such.

Though I'm not a big fan of the price on these, I don't think it's totally outrageous. I think some folks are having a tough time stomaching the fact that there's so many new variants they now need, and packaging completitsts are now having to nab four of them too. But as exclusives to an e-tailer, and with the nice packaging these got placed in, I guess I understand the cost, in general. Maybe $30 a set would've been more appropriate, but oh well...

I just think a nice, cheap, white mailer box of 4 Clean SA Clones for $20 would've made a lot of folks really happy too (like the prior army building sets) - maybe in addition to the 4 packaged, more expensive sets.

I do like that EE's taking the initiative though, in getting some "new" product out to collectors that they want, and that Hasbro would probably not be intelligent enough to put out on their own (apparently). So kudos to EE for that. So what part did GH play in making this happen? I found that part of the description interesting. I wonder if they get just a tiny little slice of the pie if they helped EE put this idea together...

If so, I'm gonna have to go yell at Mike for making me shell out a couple o' bills on these things!